(T) Spare wheel carrier for facelift Qubo

Have found a Qubo to buy - full details will follow when it arrives! It's a facelift Lounge with the 80horse Multijet.

Unfortunately, as usual these days, the car was originally specified without a spare wheel - it would have cost just £100! I must have a spare wheel - have never owned a car without, and don't propose to start now!

Fiat-sourced, the kit to fit a spare wheel (without the wheel and tyre, or fitting), would cost over £500!! Funny sense of humour those Italians.

So, I have asked the garage to supply a parts list, so I can price the kit up from Autoparts or similar, but I'm guessing it's still going to be expensive - if generic parts are available for such a rare car.

I see from an earlier thread that RVM suggested the Facelift model has a different mechanism from the older type (typical!), so presumably a scrapper-sourced model is incompatible.

Has anyone been through the rigmarole and can advise on cheapest/easiest way forward - I can foresee this stupid omission is going to cost me a fortune, and a great deal of time and effort.

Hi
I think any spare wheel carrier from either fiorino, qubo, nemo and bipper will fit the face lift as only the front of the qubo/Fiorino was changed
There have been a few on the bay of e
I had the same issue when I bought my Fioino, I bought the nearly new carrier of a front end wright off qubo and the garage I bought the van from supplied the brand new 15'' spare wheel as they said it had one when I asked them before I bought it.... But there obviously wasn't
Luigi

The only difference between the 'old' new Qubo and the facelift is one bracket (from gained knowledge on here) as one of the stand-off's mounting bolts is in a different place. The stand-offs fit over bolts already under the car in that useful space below the floor. Two are the same and one is larger and I think it's the bigger one that needs a mod - the legs are spread a bit wider. Someone said 'sod the cost of those I'll make my own' but I never heard any more whether he did or not. The workaround would be to lift the carpet, secure the first bolt on the bracket underneath then drill up through the floor and push a bolt (or better still, a countersunk machine screw from the top for flatness in the load area) and use that adding a bit of Araldite to secure it and make it waterproof.

The wind/down up mechanism is the same I think (I have one ready to fit but never got round to it). I have sourced parts from scrappers - the first and only s/h winding mech was knackered when it came to me - someone had wound it without a wheel on and that is something you never do as the weight holds tension on the cable and ensures it winds into the storage drum correctly - no weight and it gets in a rat's nest inside never to be freed! The last bit you need is the plastic threaded bolts to secure the wheel to the lifting 'foot' which holds it all together under the car. There are two different types dependent on using steel or alloy wheel as a spare. I think the alloy wheel retainer one is longer. S G Petch is where I got my stuff though you may find them on Fiatalfa parts.

The costs of all the bits after the event is RIDICULOUS when it's just £100 specced from new. (It was £90 on my Fiorino) That includes a scissor-jack, wheel brace, winder for the jack - all in a bag too...

I still haven't got a spare wheel! I've a set of winter tyres on steels from my Fiorino (surplus if anyone on here would like 4 winter wheels [98 PCD] ready to swap over) but I'm tempted to get an alloy - doesn't matter about the updated pattern as it'd be a temporary fit. I use Michelin Cross Climates on the car for all year grip and they're excellent in winter for that extra stickiness.

Anyway - enough rambling..hope that's useful Mr Brom

R-V-M

Many, many thanks - both respondents. I have been given the parts list by the garage, and will use that, together with your information, to source the bits I need. It seems the winding mechanism is indeed easily and cheaply available on Ebay, but the other parts don't seem to be advertised separately. I will therefore have to get them either from an Autoparts-type place, or SG Petch.
Will advise the total damage when I have the job finished and can tot it up.

UPDATE:

Bought this Qubo Lounge, without spare wheel or carrier.
Remember, this was a £100 option at time of purchase.

The garage I bought from costed up the factory parts for retro-fitting a wheel-carrier (with part numbers - very useful, as it was specifically for the Facelift version, in which one part is different from the previous model).

The cost for the carrier alone - no wheel or tyre, and before fitting - would have been - £545.87.

I then tried to cost it up using Ebay and SG Petch at Darlington.

The only piece which seemed easily available on Ebay was the winch mechanism, which cost £72.35 (compared with £138.93 OE). Otherwise, I had to rely on SGP, whose Parts guy (Ewan Renton), was extremely helpful. The cost he came up with (slightly discounted) was £191.26 for the remainder.
I could source a spare alloy and used tyre for £55+£10 postage, so the grand total for the parts alone, I calculate, would come to £328.61 + labour if you got a garage to fit it (as I would) - say £60+Vat=£12 - £72.

Grand total £400!!

I have therefore bought a spacesaver (including jack and brace), for £69 on Ebay, and it will have to live in the boot, taking up valuable space, while there's a perfectly good, tailor-made place for it under the floor. Grr!!

PLEASE - If you ever buy a new car, and there is the cheap option of a spare wheel - TICK IT!, for your own sake and your successors. Who wants to rely on a can of 'Ina(FixandGo)ingNowhere'?

Must be a breakers with this surely

The winding mech (most costly bit) is usually toast from a breaker's yard - the one I bought was scrap before it was posted, cable had been wound without a wheel on and it was like a spider's web inside the housing which I opened up to look. That was a one-way trip too as you have to break it open to get in, no pop-off tabs.

If the fitted cost is £100 at the factory (including the wheel and tyre) why are we end users being screwed in multi-part purchases? It's a complete kit of parts, 3 stand-offs and 6 nuts, a winding mechanism and possibly two plastic wing nuts - they should all come in a pack ready to fit. (Maybe plus jack, brace and wrench) Option of tyre on wheel. Steel or alloy, customer choice).. How difficult can that be??

R-V-M

For the same reason that buying a new car complete is cheaper than buying all the components separately for said vehicle

Haven't found one yet, but will persevere. Many of the MPVs will - like mine - have been supplied without spare wheel, so a commercial van is probably the best bet

Following advice from M-E-Pandas, I did manage to find a breaker's yard with a wheel carrier - not locally, but through 1st Choice on t'interweb. £66.60, with (it seems), all the bits. It arrived by courier in two days, so pretty good. When I rang them, the company selling it swore blind that there was no difference between facelift and earlier models so far as the wheel carrier is concerned.

We shall see - the car is booked in for Tuesday to have the carrier fitted at our local garage. I shall give an update thereafter.

I think they're right - the only odd bit is one stand-off bracket and it seems totally pointless to have altered anything really..

Can't imagine why you're paying someone to fit this kit - it's a joyful 30 minute job as there's yards of space underneath to work in..6 nuts to fit the stand offs and (I think) 4 nuts to mount the windy-mech bit..but maybe you don't like getting your hands dirty? (From memory they're all studs factory-fitted under/through the floor)


R-V-M

Quite right - feeble isn't it?! I know I could/should do it, but it would involve lying on my back on our cold, wet, windy driveway under the car, using a flimsy jack to raise it above my head.
Lacking any instructions on procedure, so having to use that rare commodity, common sense, and in the knowledge that one of the stays possibly wouldn't fit - and that the carrier cable would tie itself into an irretrievable knot given the slightest opportunity - you know what? I felt I should keep the local tradesmen in business, instead! That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.

I respect your decision to hand the job on...but there's so much room under the rear you could hold a party - even socially distanced!

If you lay on your back there's comfortable 'head'room up there to manipulate all the fittings and so forth, an easy job. Maybe even if you are letting a garage do it, just have a look before you commit - it's not a difficult job. No jack necessary at all. Surely the wind stops sometime..


R-V-M

It will have to be jacked up if he has a tow bar as i have....I did have a go just to make sure but the tow bar bracket hangs down to much and the exhaust also gets in the way on the n/s only giving you a really small space to get under
Luigi

Ok, OK, I'll have a go - but you know who'll get the blame if it all goes pear-shaped! Can I wait until after the forecast snow has gone, please?

Unfortunately. I don't yet have a towbar, so can't use that as my excuse - I might well get one, given the hefty towing limit - 1000kg, I believe? I certainly won't be fitting that myself!